Interactive CDs Thinkwell Instruction on a CD; tests online. Has "live" lectures.
Math Deluxe (available at CompUSA). A Mathematica-type environment with instructional worksheets.
MathPert Assistant. Student is given problems, student chooses what to do at each step (subtract from both sides, factor, ... ).
Calculus WIZ. A Mathematica based Calculus tutorial and problem solver.

The Department has a computer lab in Physical Science Building 208,
equipped with Matlab, Mathematica, etc.,
for the benefit of students and faculty.
Access is either by numerical code or by permission of the Lab Monitor.

When space is available,
other students can use the lab during Math 140 exam times.
However, the last Math 140 computer exam is the last day to withdraw.
After that, the lab will be closed during these times.

Each student must agree to the Terms of Acceptable Use statement for the
UH Math Dept Computer Lab. The students agree to obey all of the terms of use
and conditions set forth in the UH Information Technology Resources Policy.
Their policy is here:

The policy for the math lab will be the same, but adds in particular that

Students agree not to:
1) Download, install software or run any outside
programs or software packages.
2) Download or upload work protected by copyright or files not related to
class work.
3) Attempt to gain unauthorized access to remote computer systems.

In addition you acknowledge that:
4) There is no expectation of privacy in the Math Lab and your activities may
be monitored.

Accounts and passwords

Each lab account can use a portion of the network hard for storing files.
You save your files to the H: drive and
not
the local hard disk or C: drive. In Derive you would typically save your lab
by using the Save As ... option
on the File tab and then saving you file with the name
H:\lab1.
To open a file you would use the Open
option on the File tab and enter
H: <cr>
to see a list of your files.

In order to keep others from using your account you need to keep your
password secret. For example, don't write it down next to
your account number in your notebook where others can see it.

Graphing and Calculus Software

wxMaxima

You can download this free software which is available for Window, MacOS,
Linux and UNIX computers. This software is installed on the lab PCs and is
used in the calculus classes for graphing and symbolic calculus
calculations. In addition, the math department has many sample sessions
available on their website.

Winplot is a small but useful plotting program that can be downloaded and used on any Windows PC.
It is available on the desktop in the PC lab in addition to Derive. Give it a try!

Mac users with OS Version 7.5 or later already have a plotting program on their Apple menu. Check it out.

Other Free Software:

Just for fun ... read about an important math/computer problem:

The famous problem "P versus NP" problem is decades old and there is a million dollar prize to solve it.
Now a mathematician in England has shown that the problem is equivalent to solving
a larger version of the well know Minesweeper game that is included with the Windows operating system.
Read the news story,
or just play the game.

Press "Add Function" button and type in a formula to be graphed in
standard mathematical notation (eg "e^(-x/10)sin(x)"). The only
variable the formula can use is x. Use Pi for pi; for
example, sin(Pi/2 x). You can add as many functions as you
like, and "Delete Function" deletes the last one you entered.

Rescaling

This brings up a panel which you can use to edit the scale of the
graph. The x variable runs between xMin and
xMax, and the y values run between yMin and
yMax. Use xScale and yScale to set the
spacing of tick marks on the axes. If xScale or yScale
is zero, the graph will have no tickmarks on that axis.

Zooming

You can change the scale of your picture quickly with "Zoom In",
"Zoom Out" and "Zoom to Box". The first two zoom in or out around the
center of the graph. If you click and drag on the graphing window, you
can draw out a box, and Zoom To Box will zoom in to make that
box fill the whole window.

Grapher

The PC Lab in PSB 208 has the computer software Octave installed. Octave is
a clone of the popular mathematical software system MatLab. The MatLab system
is also available in our computer lab and there is a
student version
available on the web for a moderate fee. The MatLab system is used in many
engineering and scientific computing laboratories. Octave is a free system
available online by one of the creators of MatLab at the University of
Wisconsin. It is licensed under the General Public
License or GPL (see Wikipedia
for more information). Its abilities include matrix computations, linear
algebra,
plotting and structured programming.

When used as a programming tool the program code is edited in an external
editor supplied with the system and then programs are run by entering commands
in the Octave command window. With a little care it is possible to use
core elements of the MatLab/Octave programming language so that the program code
will work with either system.

Installing Octave On Your Computer

Either save it to a temporary location and then execute it
or else execute the program immediately during the download process.

Note: I recommend choosing the non-Java version during the installation since it seems to be more stable.

2) The program will be installed in your C: drive and there will be
startup folder containing a startup icon and PDF file version of the
manual. The startup folder can be opened by clicking Start/All
Programs/GNU Octave.

You start the program by clicking the startup icon and waiting for
the prompt to appear. You then can just start entering statements into Octave by typing
expressions and then clicking the enter key:

That last command "exit" will close the Octave window and end the program.

3) By default, Octave will look for your program code in
the folder

C:\Program Files\Octave

You want to create a better location for your files. A good solution is
to create a folder "Octave Programs" in your "My Documents" folder. Next
you need to make this folder the current working
directory in Octave. This can be done at startup by using the change directory
command cd as follows for Windows XP:

The best method is to have the system automatically make this change for you by
editing the properties of the desktop startup icon. To do this right
click the startup icon, click "Properties" and then edit the "Start In:"
folder to be your code folder.

The next time you start Octave the working directory will be the one
you entered in the "Start In:" field. You can check whether this is the case by
using the pwd command as above.

4) The default text editor for writing octave code is the SciTE program and you can copy a startup link to your desktop also.
It is located at

C:\Program Files\GNU Octave 3.0.1\tools\wscite\SciTE.exe

This last step may not be necessary since the Windows
system will associate this editor with text file with the m-extension.
Thus, if you create an empty plain text file in your code folder (Step 2)
with the name test.m then double
clicking this file icon will open the editor. At that point you can use
the File/Save As option to rename it.

5) To test your system create the file test.m in Step 4 and enter the single statement:

disp('Hello World!')

and then Save
your changes. Next double-click the Octave startup on your desktop and
enter the statement 'test' followed by the Enter key. Here's what should
happen:

octave:1> test
Hello World!
octave:2>

Alternately, you can just enter statements directly
into Octave by typing say:

The preferred method of writing code is to use a source
file (as above) and then test the code in Octave. When something is not
right you should modify the source file, save the changes and repeat the
testing step. Nevertheless, any code statement can be entered directly
into Octave for testing purposes or for doing very simple examples.

6) To get started with programming read over the
introductory material in the Octave Manual starting at page 33. Another
way to get started is to skim over the MatLab Getting Started Manual
starting with Chap 3 and Chap 5. The Matlab system has a completely
different interface than Octave but the MatLab Command window is very
similar to the Octave system language:

Octave and MatLab are quite compatible and with a little
care one can write programs that will simultaneously work with either
system. In addition, MatLab has an extensive website to help you learn
their programming language, see

7) It is possible to paste code into the command line and to
copy portions of the command window for use in text files. Here's how
you do that:

Enlarge the octave window so that all computations are
showing.

Right-click in the top window strip to reveal the edit menu.
Choose Edit and select Mark.

With your mouse select button held down select the portion of
the window you want to copy. It should highlight as you move your
mouse. When the material is selected press the Enter-key. The
selection is now on the clipboard and can be pasted into a text
editor.

The reverse process of pasting a command into Octave is done by first
copying the command to the clipboard from a file or web page. Then, in
the octave window right-click the top window strip and select Edit then
Paste.